The present invention relates to a front part structure of a vehicle body including an apron side member which is disposed in a longitudinal direction of a vehicle, an apron lower member which is disposed below the apron side member in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle so that the apron lower member connects a front-side component of a vehicle to a suspension frame.
In the front part structure of the vehicle body, a suspension arm attachment portion is disposed in an end portion (hereinafter, referred to as ‘front end portion’) of the suspension frame on the front side of the vehicle in consideration of the layout of an engine or a transmission. In addition, an apron lower member attachment portion to be attached with the rear end portion of the apron lower member is disposed in the front end portion so as not to interrupt an operation in which the suspension arm is attached to the suspension arm attachment portion.
As an example, in the past, a structure of the apron lower member attachment portion is known in which a nut is fixed by welding to an upper surface of a flange protruding from the front end portion of the suspension frame and a bolt insertion hole which is concentric with the nut is formed in the flange. Then, the upper surface of the rear end portion of the apron lower member comes into contact with only the lower surface of the flange, and then an attachment bolt is inserted through the bolt insertion hole from the downside to thereby be screw-connected to the nut.
As another example, a structure is known in which the lower surface of the rear end portion of the apron lower member comes into contact with only the upper surface of the front end portion of the suspension frame to thereby carry out an attaching/fixing operation (see Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 1-116778 A
The apron lower member transmits a shock generated from the front side of the vehicle to rear-side components such as a suspension frame so as to support the shock together with the rear-side components, thereby functioning to restrict the vehicle from being deformed by the applied shock. In order to carry out the restricting function, the apron lower member is configured to have large rigidity.
However, according to the known structure, since the rear end portion of the apron lower member is attached to the suspension frame in such a manner that the upper surface of the rear end portion of the apron lower member comes into contact with only the lower surface of the flange and then the attachment bolt is inserted through the bolt insertion hole from the downside to thereby be screw-connected to the nut, attachment strength that the rear end portion of the apron lower member is attached to the front end portion of the suspension frame is not strong. Additionally, even when rigidity of the apron lower member is strong, a shock generated from the front side of the vehicle cannot be sufficiently transmitted to the rear-side components such as the suspension frame. As a result, a problem arises in that it is difficult to sufficiently restrict the vehicle from being deformed when the shock is applied.